Tainan: Day 4 [San He Tang teahouse]
I emailed Mark (boymrkymrk ) to start setting up plans for when he arrives in Taiwan, then went to the post office, then ate a breakfast, then went to the train station visitors’ center and had them call San He Tang teahouse. Chun graciously offered to pick me up from the local train station, and so he did. His minivan's back half was filled with boxes and bags of tea, and this long-haired tea friend and I made small talk on the way to his shop. His shop is in a town called Liujia, and the store features his tea and antique teaware, though I don’t know if any of the teaware was for sale. We sat down and drank gallons of tea for the rest of the day.
A laundry list:
• Xizhihao 2006 Fall Yiwu (maocha) [ok, thin]
• Xizhihao 1997 Yiwu (cake) [good as usual]
• Menghai 2001 Round Green-stamp Yiwu [good]
• Menghai 1990 7542 [good]
• Xizhihao 2005 Spring Lao Banzhang (cake) [good]
• Xiaguan 2001 8653 [not so good]
• Xiaguan 2003 Te Ji cake [not good]
• Xizhihao 2006 Summer Lao Banzhang “Yin” (maocha) [good but thin]
• Xizhihao 2006 Summer Lao Banzhang “Yang” (maocha) [good but thin]
• Xizhihao 2006 Spring Nannuo (maocha) [good]
• 1996 Zhongcha cake [good]
As the list above proves, the man was very generous with me. I spoke to Aaron by phone while I was there. I made three purchases: the fall Yiwu and one each of the summer Banzhang “Yin” and “Yang” cake series, which are not spring tea as Hou De has them listed, at least not according to Chun himself, which I thought was interesting. I didn't ask if he had made other productions. He also threw in several small bags of his maocha for free, which was nice, and then treated me to a steak dinner at a fancy modern restaurant owned by a friend of his, which was even nicer. He said he plans to attend the 2007 tea convention in…Las Vegas or Atlanta…and show his teas, which I think is a wise choice. *le shrug*
He left me at the train station, and I headed back to Tainan.
A laundry list:
• Xizhihao 2006 Fall Yiwu (maocha) [ok, thin]
• Xizhihao 1997 Yiwu (cake) [good as usual]
• Menghai 2001 Round Green-stamp Yiwu [good]
• Menghai 1990 7542 [good]
• Xizhihao 2005 Spring Lao Banzhang (cake) [good]
• Xiaguan 2001 8653 [not so good]
• Xiaguan 2003 Te Ji cake [not good]
• Xizhihao 2006 Summer Lao Banzhang “Yin” (maocha) [good but thin]
• Xizhihao 2006 Summer Lao Banzhang “Yang” (maocha) [good but thin]
• Xizhihao 2006 Spring Nannuo (maocha) [good]
• 1996 Zhongcha cake [good]
As the list above proves, the man was very generous with me. I spoke to Aaron by phone while I was there. I made three purchases: the fall Yiwu and one each of the summer Banzhang “Yin” and “Yang” cake series, which are not spring tea as Hou De has them listed, at least not according to Chun himself, which I thought was interesting. I didn't ask if he had made other productions. He also threw in several small bags of his maocha for free, which was nice, and then treated me to a steak dinner at a fancy modern restaurant owned by a friend of his, which was even nicer. He said he plans to attend the 2007 tea convention in…Las Vegas or Atlanta…and show his teas, which I think is a wise choice. *le shrug*
He left me at the train station, and I headed back to Tainan.